The Department of Energy’s decision to re-award a potential $45-billion contract for liquid radioactive waste management at the Hanford Site in Washington state to a BWX Technologies-led group could put the company at the helm of two major nuclear-weapons cleanups.
DOE announced Friday the re-award of the Integrated Tank Disposition contract to Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, a team of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor.
There remains, however, a federal protest-lawsuit over the original award, brought in the Court of Federal Claims by losing bidder: Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, a joint venture of AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Secured, Jacobs and Westinghouse.
The trio of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor already controls the $21-billion Savannah River Mission Completion contract to manage tank waste at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The BWXT-led Hanford team first won the contract in April 2023 to manage about 56 million gallons of radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production and stored in underground tanks.
The contract also calls for eventual operation of the Bechtel-built Waste Immobilization Treatment Plant, which would turn tank waste into glasslike cylinders.
After the losing bidder in the original competition sued, a U.S. Claims Court judge blocked the contract award in June 2023, citing the winner’s failure to stay continuously registered with an online procurement tracking service. Upon reconsideration, DOE decided this mistake should not negate the award.
